Spray-paint drawings cover concrete walls at the old mining mill at American Flat in the Comstock in this 1998 RGJ file photo.
Byline: Lisa J. Tolda / Photo by Lisa Tolda/RGJ

Looking down a hole to the level below at American Flat Friday Dec. 10, 2010. / Photo by Marilyn Newton/RGJ

American Flat mill

o The United Comstock Merger Mill was built in 1922 near Gold Hill by the United Comstock Mining Co.o The mill processed silver and gold ore using a cyanide leaching process.o The venture was supported by the Key Pittman Silver Purchase Act of 1918, which guaranteed silver producers a minimum price of $1 per ounce.o The act expired in 1923, eventually forcing the mill’s closure in 1928 as silver prices plummeted.o The mill site was closed to the public by the Bureau of Land Management in 1997 but it continues to be a popular party spot.o The BLM has decided to raze the mill buildings and restore the site to a natural state. Timing of the $3.2 million project is undetermined.Source: BLM, RGJ research.

Inside the lower level of the crushing plant at American Flat Friday Dec. 10, 2010. / Photo by Marilyn Newton/RGJ

More

ADVERTISEMENT

Once the largest concrete mining facility of its type in the country and now a crumbling, graffiti-covered hazard, Storey County’s American Flat mill should be razed, federal land managers have decided.

Closed to the public since 1997 but still a popular location for nighttime drinking parties, paint ball battles and other activities, the United Comstock Merger Mill at American Flat is simply too dangerous to stay, officials with the federal Bureau of Land Management insist.

“We are very concerned about the liability there,” said Mark Struble, a BLM spokesman. “The problem is it’s a dangerous site.”

Built in 1922 “with a huge capital investment” to process Comstock gold and silver ore using cyanide vat leaching, the mill only operated six years, closing after federal subsidies for silver mining were cut off, said Guy Rocha, Nevada’s former state archivist.

“It was a major mining development that had a rather short life,” Rocha said. “What that operation meant was an effort to revive the Comstock. When it went down, there just wasn’t much mining left on the Comstock.”

And if the Comstock’s fate was to evolve into a tourist destination, the abandoned American Flat mill became a destination of its own right.

The mill’s machinery was dismantled and sold as salvage but over the years, the cavernous interiors of its disintegrating buildings offered an irresistible spot for keg parties, target shooters and graffiti vandals.

Some people practiced rappelling from the mill’s largest structure, BLM officials said. In May 1996, a 44-year-old Wisconsin man driving an all-terrain vehicle on concrete steps within one building was killed when the vehicle toppled over on top of him.

The death played a big role in the BLM’s decision to close the mill to the public in 1997 but the move did little to stop dangerous visits to the site, Struble said.“We’ve fenced the thing a number of times. They’ve always been torn down,” Struble said.

Concrete floors are holed. Crumbling walls could collapse at any time. Underground mill sumps are full of water.

(Page 2 of 2)

The situation is simply unacceptable, federal officials concluded. A 2008 audit of the site by the Department of Interior’s Office of Inspector General concluded the mill posed “high risk” of liability to the government.

The BLM’s decision, released Wednesday, will require demolition of eight mill buildings and the filling of voids and tunnels. Building footprints and other disturbed areas will be filled and land planted with native vegetation. Total cost is estimated at $3.2 million.

Funding and scheduling of the project have yet to be determined.

Under an agreement with the Nevada State Historic Preservation Office, the BLM “will document and interpret” historic resources at the site prior to demolition. The mill is part of the Virginia City National Historic Landmark.

Struble acknowledges some may be unhappy over the decision to tear the mill’s ruins down.

“This may not be popular. Generations of people have gone up there,” Struble said.One critic, Virginia City resident Joe Curtis, who authored the book “American Flat: Stepchild of the Comstock,” attacked the decision.

“I’m incensed they are going to raze that,” said Curtis, 65.

While he recognized the mill in its current state poses dangers, some of the site should be retained to provide a “visible historical reference,” Curtis said.

The government may realistically have little alternative, Rocha said.

“It looks like it’s been bombed out,” Rocha said. “It draws your attention but you can see it’s in terrible disrepair and there’s tremendous danger there. I don’t think BLM has a choice.”

***

A story in tomorrow's Reno Gazette-Journal will look at the American Flat mill site, an historic complex of mining buildings built near Virginia City in the 1920s and a popular location for teen partying, paintball battles and graffiti spraying.

The site will soon be torn down under a decision by the Bureau of Land Management. The place is simply too dangerous, BLM officials say. If you have any memories of going out to American Flat, share them here.